The island of Eigerøya lies just off shore from Egersund. The island has several well-known businesses and attractions including the Eigerøy war memorial from World War II.

The 432-square-kilometre (167 sq mi) municipality is the 229th largest by area out of the 422 municipalities in Norway. Eigersund is the 78th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 14,899. The municipality's population density is 38.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (100/sq mi) and its population has increased by 9.6% over the last decade.[2]

The rural parish surrounding the town of Egersund was established as the municipality of Egersund landdisstrikt (Egersund rural district) on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). In 1839, the northwestern district of Augne (population: 825) was separated to form its own municipality. On 12 December 1868, a small area of Eigersund municipality (population: 41) was transferred to neighboring Sokndal. In 1947, an area of Eigersund immediately surrounding the town of Egersund (population: 515) was transferred to the town of Egersund and another area in Sokndal (population: 7) was transferred to Eigersund.

During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers in Norway due to the work of the Schei Committee. On 1 January 1965, the town of Egersund (population: 3,787) was merged with the surrounding municipalities of Eigersund (population: 4,664), Helleland (population: 851), and the Gyadalen and Grøsfjel areas of Heskestad (population: 114). The new municipality was also called Eigersund. On 1 January 1967, the Tjørn farm (population: 10) was transferred from Eigersund to Sokndal.[3]

The Old Norse form of the name was Eikundarsund. The first element is the genitive case of the name of the island of Eikund (now Eigerøya) and the last element is sund which means "strait" or "sound". The first element in the name of the island is eik which means "oak" and the last element is the suffix-und which means "plentiful of" (i.e. "the island covered with oak trees").[4]

"Egersund" vs. "Eigersund"

The form of the name spelled without the diphthong [ei] (Egersund) is the Danish language form of the name which is still preserved in the name of the town Egersund, but the municipality name is spelled using the Norwegian language form.

The coat-of-arms are relatively modern; they were granted on 20 October 1972. The arms show a gold/yellow oak leaf on a green background. The arms are partly a canting since the name is supposedly derived from Eikundarsund and eik means oak. Oaks are also very common in the municipality.[5]

Eigerøya is an island off the coast of Egersund. The island is connected to the mainland over Eigerøy bridge, which was completed in 1951. The island's coastline is characterized by a number of small bays, as well as Lundarviga. Eigerøya is divided almost in two of the large bay of Lundarviga. The island is surrounded by a number of small islets. Eigerøy Lighthouse and Vibberodden Lighthouse are both located along the shores of Eigerøya.